5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (30 Aug)

3. Winners: Bray Wyatt & Randy Orton

SmackDown has really kicked things up a notch in terms of promos and interviews since the Draft. WWE fans remain jaded by years of insomnia-curing 30-minute Authority in-ring segments on Raw, but SmackDown’s top wrestlers continue to deliver the goods on the microphone. This week saw a trio of great exchanges between some of the blue brand’s leading lights, and Bray Wyatt and Randy Orton did a fantastic job halfway through the show.

The duo engaged in a confrontation last week, and they built on it this week. Wyatt came out to cut a promo on The Viper, claiming he’d been exploited and exposed by Brock Lesnar, but Orton came-out for a rebuttal. Referring to his brutal matches with the likes of Mick Foley and The Undertaker, Orton said he’d “been damaged for a long time,” and accepted Wyatt’s challenge for Backlash. Before Orton could hit the ring and fight, however, the lights cut-out, and Bray was long gone.

Orton and Wyatt have excellent chemistry together, and continue to entertain through their interactions. It’d be a shame if this was just a single-PPV rivalry, because the work they’re putting-in together is deserving of a much longer run. Wyatt’s brooding nature prompted Orton to delve into some of his own personal darkness last night, and the segment benefited by not running too long and overexposing the crowd. These are two of the most deranged wrestlers in WWE today, and their showdown is being set-up nicely.